Electric and biomethane-fuelled urban buses: comparison of environmental performance of different powertrains

Purpose The paper aims to promote the transition to low/zero emission of the local public transport, particularly, urban buses are taken into account. Method The life cycle assessment of electric and biomethane-fuelled urban buses is performed by exploiting SimaPro commercial software (v.9.1.1.). Attention is focused on powertrains. Both midpoint and endpoint analyses are performed. Referring to environmental impact, the best compressed biomethane gas (CBG) powertrain was compared to the best electric one. Additionally, the worst-case scenario has been considered for both CBG and electric powertrains. Results CBG powertrain outperforms the electric one if overall greenhouse gas emissions are considered. However, the electric powertrain seems promising for human health and ecosystem. Conclusions The environmental performance of the two powertrains is good. Both of the two technologies have strength and weak points that anyhow make them good candidates for a clean local public transport of the future. The analysis performed in the paper suggests a future investigation on hybrid electric-CBG powertrain. Actually, such a solution could benefit from both the strengths of the biomethane and the electric powertrain.

Low-code development and model-driven engineering: Two sides of the same coin?

The last few years have witnessed a significant growth of so-called low-code development platforms (LCDPs) both in gaining traction on the market and attracting interest from academia. LCDPs are advertised as visual development platforms, typically running on the cloud, reducing the need for manual coding and also targeting non-professional programmers. Since LCDPs share many of the goals and features of model-driven engineering approaches, it is a common point of debate whether low-code is just a new buzzword for model-driven technologies, or whether the two terms refer to genuinely distinct approaches. To contribute to this discussion, in this expert-voice paper, we compare and contrast low-code and model-driven approaches, identifying their differences and commonalities, analysing their strong and weak points, and proposing directions for cross-pollination.

Trichoderma-Induced Resistance to Botrytis cinerea in Solanum Species: A Meta-Analysis

With the idea of summarizing the outcomes of studies focusing on the resistance induced by Trichoderma spp. against Botrytis cinerea in tomato, the present paper shows, for the first time, results of a meta-analysis performed on studies published from 2010 to 2021 concerning the cross-talk occurring in the tomato–Trichoderma-B. cinerea system. Starting from an initial set of 40 papers, the analysis was performed on 15 works and included nine parameters, as a result of a stringent selection mainly based on the availability of more than one article including the same indicator. The resulting work not only emphasizes the beneficial effects of Trichoderma in the control of grey mold in tomato leaves (reduction in disease intensity, severity and incidence and modulation of resistance genes in the host), but carefully drives the readers to reply to two questions: (i) What are the overall effects of Trichoderma on B. cinerea infection in tomato? (ii) Do the main effects of Trichoderma differ based on the tomato species, Trichoderma species, amount, type and duration of treatment? At the same time, this meta-analysis highlights some weak points of the available literature and should be seen as an invitation to improve future works to better the conceptualization and measure.

A network analysis of global cephalopod trade

The global trade in cephalopods is a multi-billion dollar business involving the fishing and production of more than ten commercially valuable species. It also contributes, in whole or in part, to the subsistence and economic livelihoods of thousands of coastal communities around the world. The importance of cephalopods as a major cultural, social, economic, and ecological resource has been widely recognised, but research efforts to describe the extent and scope of the global cephalopod trade are limited. So far, there are no specific regulatory and monitoring systems in place to analyse the traceability of the global trade in cephalopods at the international level. To understand who are the main global players in cephalopod seafood markets, this paper provides, for the first time, a global overview of the legal trade in cephalopods. Twenty years of records compiled in the UN COMTRADE database were analysed. The database contained 115,108 records for squid and cuttlefish and 71,659 records for octopus, including commodity flows between traders (territories or countries) weighted by monetary value (USD) and volume (kg). A theoretical network analysis was used to identify the emergent properties of this large trade network by analysing centrality measures that revealed key insights into the role of traders. The results illustrate that three countries (China, Spain, and Japan) led the majority of global market movements between 2000 and 2019. Based on volume and value, as well as the number of transactions, 11 groups of traders were identified. The leading cluster consisted of only eight traders, who dominated the cephalopod market in Asia (China, India, South Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam), Europe (the Netherlands, and Spain), and the USA. This paper identifies the countries and territories that acted as major importers or exporters, the best-connected traders, the hubs or accumulators, the modulators, the main flow routes, and the weak points of the global cephalopod trade network over the last 20 years. This knowledge of the network is crucial to move towards an environmentally sustainable, transparent, and food-secure global cephalopod trade.

Russian and UK Dementia Action Plans: a comparative analysis

Purpose This study aims to compare two national dementia plans and analyse the approach of each state to the issue. Design/methodology/approach Comparative analysis, legal analysis, policy analysis Findings Although research is central to both plans, the practical implementation of the Russian and UK plans differs. The Russian action plan on dementia is advisory in nature and does not propose specific programmes for research funding. Two plans have different approach to the role of education and risk factors. Research limitations/implications Lack of information on Russian regional strategies does not allow to compare regional differences between two countries. Originality/value This study illustrates several weak points in the UK and Russian dementia policies, which should be addressed to tackle the dementia problem in both countries.

Politicization of the Non-politicizable: The Collapse of the Ice Skating Rink in Bad Reichenhall on 2 January 2006

After heavy snowfall, the skating rink of the city of Bad Reichenhall collapsed on 2 January 2006. Fifteen people, twelve children between the age of 7 and 15 and three mothers, were killed by the falling debris of the roof, 34 people were injured. Court trials came to the conclusion that the City of Bad Reichenhall, over a long period of time, had seriously neglected the maintenance of the hall despite clear indication of water ingress and related weak points in the roof structure. The Lord Mayor admitted before court to have purposefully obstructed the decision of the municipal parliament to renovate the hall since he had intended to have the hall dismantled anyway and to build a modern pastime and wellness center instead.

Pastoral Care for Migrants. Canonical and Religious Related Legal Requirements on Asylum and on the Change of Religion

Refugees and migrants have always been of particular concern to the Roman Catholic Church and its pastoral care. Even if the large influx of refugees happening in 2015 and 2016 is no longer the case, flight and migration are still relevant topics in Austria. The contribution deals with the historical development of canonical regulations, the situation of refugees and migrants in Austria, the legal basis, the implementation of asylum procedures and numbers, the statements of the Austrian Bishop’s Conference, the access to a Church or religious community and converting from one to another, the question of the Catholic Church’s necessity of salvation, regulations concerning catechumenate and the question of church asylum. It provides figures, data and facts, presents the canonical and state legal situation and analyses it. It tries to make weak points obvious and would like to provide help for future considerations.

IMPLIKASI YURIDIS TRANSFORMASI UNIT SYARIAH PERUSAHAAN ASURANSI/REASURANSI KE DALAM PERUSAHAAN ASURANSI/REASURANSI SYARIAH

In this article the author examines the juridical implications of transforming Units of Insurance/Reinsurance Company into Sharia Insurance/Reinsurance Company. It peruses two different models, the pure model, and the acquisition model. Both have its own strong and weak points. The pure models show its strongest point in being simpler about Sharia compliance. Its weakness, however, is the requirement of priory obtaining permit in principle and business permits. In contrast, the superiority of the acquisition model lies in its simplicity of licensing and conversion permits. Its disadvantage is in the complexity of contract conversion. Regarding assets and liabilities, strict adherence to the Sharia principles, voluntarisms, and avoidance of the mixing of halal and haram, is a pre-requisite

Interpretation of spatiotemporal gravity changes accompanying the earthquake of 21 August 2017 on Ischia (Italy)

We analyse spatiotemporal gravity changes observed on the Ischia island (Italy) accompanying the destructive earthquake of 21 August 2017. The 29 May 2016 to 22 September 2017 time-lapse gravity changes observed at 18 benchmarks of the Ischia gravimetric network are first corrected for the gravitational effect of the surface deformation using the deformation-induced topographic effect (DITE) correction. The co-seismic DITE is computed by Newtonian volumetric integration using the Toposk software, a high-resolution LiDAR DEM and the co-seismic vertical displacement field derived from Sentinel-1 InSAR data. We compare numerically the DITE field with its commonly used Bouguer approximation over the island of Ischia with the outcome that the Bouguer approximation of DITE is adequate and accurate in this case. The residual gravity changes are then computed at gravity benchmarks by correcting the observed gravity changes for the planar Bouguer effect of the elevation changes at benchmarks over the same period. The residual gravity changes are then inverted using an inversion approach based on model exploration and growing source bodies, making use of the Growth-dg inversion tool. The found inversion model, given as subsurface time-lapse density changes, is then interpreted as mainly due to a co-seismic or post-seismic disturbance of the hydrothermal system of the island. Pros and weak points of such interpretation are discussed.

Further Integral Inequalities through Some Generalized Fractional Integral Operators

In this article, we utilize recent generalized fractional operators to establish some fractional inequalities in Hermite–Hadamard and Minkowski settings. It is obvious that many previously published inequalities can be derived as particular cases from our outcomes. Moreover, we articulate some flaws in the proofs of recently affiliated formulas by revealing the weak points and introducing more rigorous proofs amending and expanding the results.